About Rich Schmid

Rich is a retired school principal who has always enjoyed working with wood as a hobby. Nine years ago he discovered the creativity that a wood lathe and chisels can do to a piece of firewood.

He also enjoys the continued learning of the designs of vessels, the properties of different woods and the many techniques there are for turning a piece of wood. He tries to leave a piece of Mother Nature in most of his pieces.

Rich has advanced his hobby by adding carving, dying, painting, burning and filling voids with rock to make his pieces unique. Each piece is unique in itself as Mother Nature dictates much of the shape.

Besides the many functional pieces such as salad and nut bowls, he creates many home decorative pieces for the dining room table, entrance way, mantel, etc.

At any given time, Rich has over 100 pieces on display in his home studio. If you’d like to visit and view these pieces, please contact us for an appointment.

Coming from a teaching background, Rich enjoys teaching others and sharing his knowledge. Lessons are very reasonable. Sometimes he only wants a nice piece of wood. This is his way of giving back what he has learned from other highly skilled people in his club (Greater Vancouver Wood Turner’s Guild). He also teaches beginning woodturning classes at KMS Tools on various Saturdays.

Welcome to Branchin' Out
I’m Rich Schmid and this site is designed to showcase the different styles of wood art I create. Please check out the Wood Turnings for Sale section to view the items we currently have for sale.
All of my woodturnings are carefully handcrafted using recycled wood products. I believe in using the gifts that mother nature has provided us, without causing damage to … [Read More...]